This year seems to have flown by!
Last round of the PMBA already! We were back at the fantastic Grizedale forest for the last round and what a sweet set of trails Kev and his team had put in place for us Enduro goons.
Setting of late saturday morning after a bacon butty and coffee it was a quick stop at Darlington to meet up with Damo and grab some ciders and food for the weekend :) It was then on to Grizedale to get some practice in on stages 4 and 5.
Setting out up to stage 4 it was a good feeling getting back on the bike after tearing my AC joint 3 weeks before I was eager to get out there and make sure I was still working!!
Well I don't think I was.......practice couldn't of gone any worse! Moaned my arse off the whole way round much to Damo's annoyance, just couldn't get in to a groove and felt all wrong so after some top quality abuse from Damo on what a big girl I was being we called it a day and headed back up to Windermere to meet Allan at a small cottage he was staying in, no camping for us, nice and relaxed looking forward to a good nights sleep.
Morning Practice
So after a hopeless start to the weekend practice and having a word with myself I decided to change tyres over for something a bit more spikey :) It was on to practice stage 1,2,3 was looking forward to these as they were new tracks not yet ridden. Awesome first stage flat out fast and 2 and 3 didn't disappoint I was feeling a lot better after these and more than ready to race
Stage #1
Good move kicking off the race with this one as first stage, rocky, fast and loose this was one for the brave. If you let the brakes go and hit everything flat out it worked better for you, few sticky bits but mostly loose rocks with some big rock slabs, this track just begged you to go fast with some nice open flat turns and flowing single track near the finish before a quick sprint over the line felt absolutely pinned down here and it showed!
6th on this stage
Stage #2
Another new stage and it didn't disappoint, probably my favourite stage of the weekend managed to ride it with the bike fully locked out in practice and felt fast haha, so was feeling confident going into this one, with some technical rooty sections, loose loam and blind drops this stage was balls out fun managed to hit the tree just after first section of woods it was a nasty right hander with sketchy off camber rock slabs going in fully committed it stopped me dead in my tracks, after some words with the said tree I carried on with even more commitment trying to make up for lost time few mistakes but happy with 7th on this stage
Stage #3
Short and sweet this one, not a new track but a few nice little changes to keep you on you toes a nasty sprint off the start up a short climb through a mud bath then down into some fast tight single track before it fired you down what was now a stream flat out into some nicely laid out corners through some berms and into the finish, 6th on this stage
Stage #4
A long stage this one, hated the start middles was good but the end is mint! Was nice to see the main man Kev at the top of this stage and setting off he gave me some abusive encouragement to get me up to speed!
Dropping into the rooty mess and and steep rutted drops I've always found it hard to get a good start to the stage here but to my surprise I was hitting my lines perfect, popping off the log drop it was going good went a bit hot into a turn and dropped a wheel over a rut it was back on track and hit the first fire road sprinting like a loon around the corner before scrubbing of what I thought was enough speed ,hhmmmm maybe not enough as I landed to flat off the big drop. The bike and me parting ways as the roots got the better of me, clambering to get back on the bike as the marshal shouted if I was ok hell yeah dude just embarrassed haha, sprinting off I made a few more mistakes before finding my groove and by this time my mate Allan was breathing down my neck, shouting words of encouragement we hit the next fire road spring busting a lung before hitting the last section were it was just flat out, Probably the fastest I've rode this section as trying to make up time required less time on the brakes was good to hear Allan shouting and laughing as he rode this stage blind loving every minute of it!
10th on this stage
Stage #5
This was a stage you could make up some time if you had the lungs and still had some power left in your legs, letting Allan go first on this stage I set off shortly after managing a clean first section before heading out on to the fire road for the long sprint just managing to see Allan in the distance gave me a much needed boost to sprint harder and try and catch him, nearing the top I could see Richard /Mountain bike garage shouting words of encouragement as I dropped down in to the last techi section with a few sharp turns and the now familiar rock slabs it was onto the last sprint along the fast flowing single track I cranked in a few peddle strokes until my chain jammed in the chain guide so it was pump through the last section trying to maintain my speed and firing into the finish .19th this stage
So that's it a cracking race to finish the end of the series, with a strong start on the first few stages I managed to bag myself 8th place with a less than perfect day, finishing 11th overall in series i'm pretty happy with that after a tough year of crashing a lot haha its good to improve on my results from the year before. Once again a big thanks to my Sponsor Richard Ford at Mountain bike garage we have learnt a lot this year mate and its been an awesome journey. Thank you .Thanks to the wife for all the support you've given me this year and cheers to the Enduro goons Damo,James,Carl,and Allan what a year hey lads
Photographers you do an amazing job getting in the places you do and I've got some cracking pictures from this year!!
Marshals some more vocal than others haha some quality banter throughout the season and some much needed abuse when we crash to get us back going, we wouldn't be racing if you lot didn't step up and keep an eye on us, cheers :)
Kev and Mike cheers you guys for a cracking season! Every race has been fantastic this is a race series that others need to step up to !
So that's it for this series, I've got a few winter races to keep things ticking over so keep an eye out for my next Blog
Keep it pinned
Pete
